Seahawks Week One: Gut Reaction

I’m a little late getting my post-game notes up this week. I’m sorry about that. It’s been really busy around here today, and I’m just now getting a chance finally sit down. That’s the thing about kids; sometimes they just don’t understand that Sundays are about football. Don’t worry though; they learn eventually.

It’s hard to describe this game as anything but disappointing. The offense looked about as bad as it could have for then entire first half, and the special teams were anything but special the entire game. At least the defense played well, so there’s hope that this team wont be too bad this year.

Actually, the defense was rather good. The 49ers only has 229 yards of offense in the game. Alex Smith only have 124 yards passing, and the ever-dangerous Frank Gore was held to just 59 yards on the ground. The defense only allowed 19 points despite the 49ers having excellent field position throughout the game.

The offense wasn’t as sharp, especially in the first half. Things looked downright ugly until Seattle decided to open up the playbook a bit and actually throw the ball more than 2-3 yards at a time. Both 2nd half touchdown drives looked incredibly efficient.

Tarvaris Jackson will likely be the focus of a lot of fan-hate this week, but Jackson played reasonably well. His final line was 21/37, 197 yards, 2 TD, 1 int and a rating of 78.3. That’s surprisingly Hasselbeck-like. The interception was on a hail-mary pass at the end of the first half, so that’s clearly not something to be concerned about. He did have 2 fumbles, but that was more the product of the offensive line play. As long as that doesn’t become a continuing problem I’m not concerned.

The special teams play was downright dreadful. Someone needs to tie Leon Washington’s shoes together on kickoff that are 8 yards deep in the endzone. Combining his very poor decision making with penalties and the offense never started with the ball outside the 21 yard line in the first half. And the sad thing is that this wasn’t the worst part of special teams play in this game.

Ted Ginn Jr. had 2 returns for TDs, and another huge return that set up a another score. Had the special teams managed to contain Ginn, the Seahawks likely would have won this game. I guess this is cosmic retribution for the San Diego game last year.